Work vehicles may be used for agricultural, forestry, construction, mining, or other applications that require off-road operation along one or more paths to traverse or navigate a work area. For example, a work vehicle (e.g., tractor) may be required to plant or harvest crops in an area of a field, or to distribute crop inputs, such as fertilizer or chemicals, over plants in the field. Many work vehicles include guidance systems to assist vehicle operators or drivers in planning a path or route for the vehicle to follow during field operations. For each field or work area, guidance systems can use stored or planned guidance lines to generate the paths, or otherwise direct the work vehicles from one location of the field to another. As an example, in a field that has a simple rectangular shape and plain topography, only a few guidance lines are required to define the linear edges or boundaries of the field, and the vehicle operator can cover the entire work area by following a single array of parallel paths that run through the field parallel to one of said linear edges.
By contrast, complex fields, with irregular polygonal shapes, complicated topography, and/or obstacles, require a larger number of guidance lines, and guidance line changes, to cover the irregularities in the field. Further, each guidance line change or adjustment can require numerous operator inputs, skilled decision-making, and extra time. As a result, existing guidance systems are difficult to use in complicated field structures and detract from the time available for field operations (e.g., planting, harvesting, spraying, treating, tilling, or other field work.) Accordingly, there is still a need in the art for an intelligent vehicle guidance system and method that can more effectively and precisely plan a path for the vehicle, as well as reduce and simplify operator interaction by automating guidance line selection during operation of the vehicle.